How to keep up with digital marketing trends

February 23, 2018

The secret to staying in the know

In today’s fast-paced world, industries can change rapidly.

In order to keep up, it’s important to know where your industry is headed so you can move with it. Lucky for us, the internet is a great resource for this, providing endless amounts of information. The downside of this is that it can often be overwhelming and tough to sift through.

Is there a way to keep up with industry trends while not being weighed down by too much content?

You can consume an elephant one bite at a time

It’s all about finding the right resources and working them into your daily routine. Keeping up-to-date is easier when it’s done more frequently and in smaller doses.

If you like to do a bit of reading while having your morning coffee, set aside 30-40 minutes before checking your emails to read recent articles. Or use it your reading as a way to break up your work day.

“My work day is pretty busy and I don’t always have time to read the articles I want. So I like to keep track of them on note-taking apps like Evernote. That way I can clip an article and tag it to a category of my choosing, like “content statistics” or “website platforms.” When I have time and something of relevance comes up, I then know where to go. It’s like my own library of articles I’ve personally curated.” Nigel Fowler, Co-founder at BizStory

Getting the best information will depend, in part, on your industry. Web designers might look to seminars and conferences, whereas social media strategists might be keeping up with trending articles and news topics.

How to find industry trends

While every industry is different, here are three ways to stay in-the-know:

1. Read up and subscribe.

Subscribe to journals, magazines and newsletters. Usually a quick Google search will provide lots of options to subscribe to, but to narrow it down for the digital marketing field, we recommend sites like Moz and HubSpot’s marketing blog. These publications offer great industry insights and are usually backed by industry leaders.

Blogs, LinkedIn and social media are also great resources for keeping current. Here at BizStory, we like share articles we found interesting on our Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram channels. Setting up a Google Alert is a great way to get find the most recent and popular articles. You can tailor Google Alerts to a topic, like “web design” or even your own business.

Another useful thing to do is to follow business and industry leaders you admire on social media and LinkedIn to see what they are talking about and sharing.

Remember: subscribing to publications and blogs will do nothing if they’re not actually read. Set aside a bit of time out of your work day to read through them.

2. Network.

Knowing what other business’ in the industry are doing is another great way to track where your industry is headed.

Take a look at those who are succeeding in the industry, and try to figure out why that is. Are they coming up with something new? Are they responding to a demand in the market?

Online forums and LinkedIn groups are a great way to engage with customers and people in your industry so you can offer the best solution to a problem.

Keeping up-to-date with trends doesn’t have to mean sifting through pages and pages of journal articles. It can be as simple as following industry leaders on social media, or even setting up a Google Alert for your business or keywords related to your industry.

Now, get out there and learn something new!

If you find learning new things inspires new direction for your business, feel free to get in touch. We can help you generate content that will put you at the top of the pack.